Five takeaways from the Thunder’s Game One loss
By Tony Heim
1. There’s a method to Billy Donovan’s madness
Remember what happened in Game One of the San Antonio series last year? The Thunder got demolished, Billy Donovan made a few interesting coaching decisions and everybody panicked. Then Oklahoma City proceeded to win four of the next five and take the series.
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Billy D is a chestmaster. Every move he makes is with an eye towards the future. He knows they can’t play Enes Kanter anymore, we have visual evidence. Now he has three full days to concoct a completely different strategy for this high-powered Houston offense. He also has a pissed-off Russell Westbrook ready to tackle film and figure out his own personal adjustments.
Maybe that means Doug McDermott gets unleashed as a Ryan Anderson clone. Or it could be they go ultra-big and do the exact opposite of everything I’ve just said. I have no clue.
But what I do know is Billy Donovan has given me no reason to not trust him in his nearly two years of service. And even if they lose this series I’ll still trust Donovan.
Because the biggest takeaway from tonight is that Houston is a much better basketball team at this point in time than Oklahoma City.